


Gender Rolodex

by Jackdaw816



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Character Study, Genderfluid Character, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Canon, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackdaw816/pseuds/Jackdaw816
Summary: John Hart was a man. But then again, he wasn’t always John Hart
Relationships: Jack Harkness/John Hart
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Gender Rolodex

Xe was born in a year xe couldn’t remember on a colony that was abandoned before xe turned fifteen. Children born in that colony weren’t given a gender. They took one as soon as they were old enough to understand the concept. But xe had never really cared. There were far more important epithets than a name and some pronouns. So xe kept the default pronouns and the name xyr parents had given zem. At least, until xe found something better.

Away from home, xe left everything behind. Ve took a new set of pronouns and a new name. They didn’t feel any more comfortable than the last ones, but ve shrugged it off. Ve didn’t need to be comfortable. Ve needed to be on ver guard. The world was cruel, ve knew that now. 

So, ve kept to verself and developed vis talents. From pickpocketing to petty theft to a several-month stint as the thief of a gang of thieves. There, thon shed identities as easily as she shed clothes. And they were very good at shedding clothes. Fae learned that most folk really didn’t care about his fluidity. After all, it had much more important assets to consider.

Contrary to popular belief, the Time Agency hadn’t recruited em so much as pressed em into service. If e had known that they had owned the bank, e never would have agreed to the heist. But e did, and then e spent two weeks in a pocket universe while awaiting trial. Worst two weeks of eir life. E hadn’t been expecting the job offer, but e wasn’t about to turn it down.

The Agency gave em an identification number and a partner. E lost the partner within the week. The next several partners followed suit. Ae spent a few months working solo, and it was really for the best. 

So, ae was very irritated when ae received a message detailing his new partner. Javic Thane. Apparently, that was their actual name. Ae couldn’t even remember aer own original name. But ae shouldn’t judge. And besides, they were hot. Really hot. Turns out ae could handle having a partner when the partner was as good on their knees as Javic.

The time loop was Javic’s fault. But ae chose to take it as an opportunity. Per switched pronouns with every reset. What better time would she have to explore herself? Hu soon realized it was a lost cause. Nothing fit. 

So why did fae bother? No matter what pronouns he used, co still felt uncomfortable in cos own skin. Pointless. But also, an asset. Because if every identity was equal in eir eyes, then ey would never have to worry about losing emself. But what sort of person could lose oneself and lose nothing at all?

And then Javic left, and nothing else mattered. They were gone, and so was what left of the agent’s heart. They took on their pronouns, out of remembrance and because for once they just wanted something to be simple. They were good. They could handle being them.

They left the Agency. Instead of being a safe haven, it was just full of bad memories. They had all of time and space to explore, why stay tied down? Names and identities slipped through their mind like grains of sand through their fingers. But now it was a comfort. No one could find out who they were if they didn’t know in the first place. They could be anyone in the universe and at the same time, absolutely no one at all.

Arcadia, several years later. The heiress was beautiful, but it was the diamond that caught their attention. A shame the former ended up dead, and the latter ended up lost in a Rift. They followed the diamond to Cardiff where they found an even better bounty.

Jack Harkness had embraced his masculinity; it was time for John Hart to do the same. At least until he found another reason to change.


End file.
